14 May 2024

Gender mainstreaming in society is something that should be pursued through all fronts.  

This was said by chairperson of the National Gender Commission, Joy Phumaphi during the Botswana Gender Equality Conference in Gaborone recently. 

Phumaphi urged the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC), who organised the conference, to set out a deliberate action plan to achieve such, which she said required among others, proper strategies and legal frameworks. 

“We should not assume our challenges as sporting codes, but do a good assessment of where we are lacking. 

Such a proper assessment will help us identity resources we need to put in place and how to use them,” she said. 

She also stressed the need to be consistent with data collection, which she said would go a long way in helping develop proper plans and strategies, and that monitoring and evaluation measures also needed to be put in pace for effectiveness. 

Phumaphi also urged the sporting bodies to engage all relevant stakeholders, right from the community level in order to build capacity. She, however, indicated that Botswana was still on the right track of achieving gender mainstreaming as there had been a good display of the spirit of determination. She cautioned sporting codes to differentiate between gender mainstreaming and women empowerment. 

“Women empowerment is about bringing women at par with their male counterparts by correcting the imbalances created in the past, but gender mainstreaming deals with tailoring deliberate polices and strategies that will help equality in gender,” she said.   She also expressed confidence in the ability of sport to represent Botswana well internationally on issue of gender mainstreaming. 

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Bridget John said gender mainstreaming should be the culture of Batswana even in other areas beyond just sport. 

She said she was happy that statistics indicated that sport was leading on the issue, and urged BNOC to bring in more federations on the issue beyond just its members.  In his welcome remarks, BNOC president, Botsang Tshenyego said  gender equality in sport had been a topical issue, and that it was pleasing that progress had been made over the years although there were still disparities in pay, opportunities and media coverage.   

“Historically sport has been dominated by men with limited opportunities for women, which resulted in few resources, funding and support for female athletes, making it difficult for them to compete at the same level,” he said.   Tshenyego said on top of that, women often faced discrimination and stereotypes that undermined their abilities and potential in sport.  

He stressed the need to act faster, stronger and in unison.  Tshenyego called on the need to compensate athletes equally across gender, and therefore applauded the conference for being a clear testimony on commitment towards that. ENDS